Connecticut General Statutes 16-331h – Certified competitive video service community access programming
(a) Not later than one hundred twenty days after the certified competitive video service provider begins offering service in a designated area pursuant to its certificate of video franchise authority, such provider shall provide capacity over its video service to allow community access programming, in its basic service package, in accordance with the following: (1) The certified competitive video service provider shall provide capacity equal to the number of community access channels currently offered by the incumbent community antenna television company in the given area; (2) the certified competitive video service provider shall provide funds for community access operations, as provided in subsection (k) of section 16-331a; (3) the certified competitive video service provider shall provide the transmission of community access programming with connectivity up to the first two hundred feet from the competitive video service provider’s activated wireline video programming distribution facility located in the provider’s designated service area and shall not provide additional requirements for the creation of any content; and (4) the community access programming shall be submitted to the certified competitive video service provider in a manner or form that is compatible with the technology or protocol utilized by said competitive video service provider to deliver video services over its particular network, and is capable of being accepted and transmitted by the provider, without requirement for additional alteration or change in the content by the provider.
Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 16-331h
- Authority: means the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and "department" means the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
- Certificate of video franchise authority: means an authorization issued by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority conferring the right to an entity or person to own, lease, maintain, operate, manage or control facilities in, under or over any public highway to offer video service to any subscribers in the state. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
- Certified competitive video service provider: means an entity providing video service pursuant to a certificate of video franchise authority issued by the authority in accordance with section 16-331e. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
- Community antenna television company: includes every person owning, leasing, maintaining, operating, managing or controlling a community antenna television system, in, under or over any public street or highway, for the purpose of providing community antenna television service for hire and shall include any municipality which owns or operates one or more plants for the manufacture or distribution of electricity pursuant to section 7-213 or any special act and seeks to obtain or obtains a certificate of public convenience and necessity to construct or operate a community antenna television system pursuant to section 16-331 or a certificate of cable franchise authority pursuant to section 16-331q. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
- Video programming: means programming provided by, or generally considered comparable to programming provided by, a television broadcast station. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
- Video service: means video programming services provided through wireline facilities, a portion of which are located in the public right-of-way, without regard to delivery technology, including Internet protocol technology. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
(b) A certified competitive video service provider and a community antenna television company or nonprofit organization providing community access operations shall engage in good faith negotiation regarding interconnection of community access operations where such interconnection is technically feasible or necessary. Interconnection may be accomplished by direct cable, microwave link, satellite or other reasonable method of connection. At the request of a competitive video service provider, community antenna television company or provider of community access operations, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority may facilitate the negotiation for such interconnection.